Heartbeat
by ILoveCillian91
Summary: All he wanted was to finally gather up the nerve to kiss those beautifully pink lips, to stroke that golden blonde hair, and to tell this girl that he loved her.CharlieClaire
1. Chapter 1

Heartbeat

By Lindsay

To Charlie, drugs had been the most incredible, elating sensation he had ever had. Nothing had ever compared to the buzz of heroine, the incredible high that it brought him.

But that was before he felt the kick of a baby against Claire's stomach. It was soft, yet persistent, as if the baby wanted nothing more than to get out of her stomach and be in the world, breathe the first breath of life.

He would take that over heroine any day.

It wasn't just the unborn baby either. As Charlie watched Claire, the ocean breeze rippling through her hair, a tender smile on her face as she ran her hand fondly over her bump, he thought that there was nowhere else he would rather be, even if he was on a desert island.

It didn't matter that he had been in a plane crash. It didn't matter that he had been chased by monsters and polar bears and god knows what else. All that mattered was that he had found Claire, and along with that he had found his reason for living.

He wanted to take care of Claire. He wanted to be there for her every second of the day, every day of the year, every year of the rest of their lives.

But right now, all he wanted was to finally gather up the nerve to kiss those beautifully pink lips, to stroke that golden blonde hair, and to tell this girl that he loved her.

But Charlie had never exactly won a medal for courage, so he had a feeling that it was going to be a while before he did any of those things.

"Isn't it amazing?" asked Claire.

"What?" asked Charlie, snapping out of his meandering thoughts and coming back to earth. He was still sitting on the beach with Claire, both of them sitting on the hot sand and facing the ocean. He had a hand rested on top of her stomach, though the baby had stopped kicking long ago. It was then that Charlie realized, and his heart skipped a beat at the notion, Claire had done nothing to indicate that she wanted him to remove his hand, even though the baby had long stopped its kicking.

"Isn't it amazing to feel the baby kick like that?" Claire clarified; looking dreamily down at the bulge, then back up at Charlie.

"Yeah," said Charlie softly, slowly removing his hand from her stomach and turning back to the crashing waves. "Yeah, it is."

&&&

That night, back at the caves, Claire decided to stay up and sit by the fire. She hadn't been able to sleep lately, and she didn't want to toss and turn in her makeshift bed.

The flames danced in front of her eyes as they slowly began to go down. The dying fire cast a beautiful glow on her face that made Charlie's heart leap as he slowly approached her.

He swallowed hard once, then draped a blanket over her shoulders and sat down beside her, placing a tentative arm around her.

No words were exchanged between them, but the silence was anything but awkward. They seemed to have a sort of peace between them in which they both felt content.

Claire's head dropped onto Charlie's shoulder, and by the time the fire had died down, she was asleep. Charlie raised a hand and ran it through her hair lovingly, admiring the way it framed her face. He kissed her forehead gently, and then rested his head on top of hers.

The only sounds were of the crackling of the glowing logs and the soft sound of Claire's breathing, the latter of the two Charlie found to be both exciting and soothing at the same time. Soon Charlie found his eyelids were growing heavy, and he fell into a deep sleep on Claire's shoulder.

The fire fell to glowing embers, and the camp fell silent. The island was hushed. But the beat of their hearts stayed, strong and clear, full of love, all through the night.

&&&

Please, post a review, chapter two is coming soon!

Love, 3

Lindsay


	2. Chapter 2

**Red Bess Rackham : **I'm so glad that you liked it! I guess it did kind of seem like a oneshot, lol. Please review again. Your first review was so sweet! 

**Ron Lover 6789 : **It's nice to meet another huge Charlie/Claire fan! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you like this one too.

Chapter 2

There were times in Charlie's life when he should have done things, but he didn't. Then afterwards he always wished he had just done those things, because for the rest of his life he would always be asking himself "Why?"

Why hadn't he just said "no" to his brother when he had the chance? He could have ended it before it started.

Why hadn't he made things work with Lucy? He'd cared about her, he really had, and then he'd gone and screwed everything up as usual.

Most of all, why did he keep neglecting to tell Claire how he felt about her?

She had just been sitting on the beach with him while he told her funny stories from his DriveSHAFT days (none that included any traces of drugs, whores, or violence) and as she threw back that beautiful head of hers and laughed her heart out, he knew that it was the perfect moment for him to kiss her. These moments came up increasingly often, but he could never quite find the will to close that space between his lips and hers.

Charlie sighed deeply and leaned forward, resting his head in his hands. The roar of the ocean was beginning to make his head pound, though it had felt so soothing and magical while Claire was beside him.

He dug his hands into the sand and scooped up handfuls of it, letting the fine grains fall through his fingers, leaving nothing but a coarse texture on his fingers and palms. He clapped his hands together to shake the lingering specks off and gazed over his shoulder to where Claire had disappeared into the foliage of the jungle. Her pee break was taking an awful long time. Sure, she was pregnant, and Charlie had no watch or clock or any way of telling the time, but he was pretty sure that she had been gone for a sufficient amount of time for him to start worrying.

As if on cue, Kate made an abrupt entrance by means of bursting through the trees and skidding to a halt in the sand.

"Charlie," she gasped out, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "Claire needs you. She's going into labor."

By the time Kate had taken another gasping breath, Charlie was already on his feet, charging into the jungle in the direction he had seen Claire go.

"Charlie!" Kate yelled after him, but he didn't listen. Right then, he didn't care if a polar bear jumped out in front of him. If it did, he would just plow right over it. He had to get to Claire. He had to find her. She needed him to be there.

Charlie had never run so fast and so hard in his life, but Kate still managed to catch up to him.

"Follow me," breathed Kate as she ran alongside him.

Charlie wanted to tell her that he didn't have the time to follow her to Claire; he needed to get there as quickly as possible and he couldn't afford to slow down to trail after her.

But in a flash of auburn hair, Kate was ahead of him by at least five paces, and Charlie found himself straining his legs just to keep up.

He followed Kate through the winding trails of the forest, over tree roots and under branches until finally she came to an abrupt stop, causing Charlie to run into her and throw them both slightly off balance.

In the small clearing that lay before them, Claire was sitting on the jungle floor with her back to a fallen tree. Jack knelt before her, cupping her delicate face in his hands and attempting to calm her with words of encouragement.

Claire's entire body was tensed up in a way that made Charlie's heart ache. He had never felt like this before, not even when his dear older brother abandoned him for a world of sex and drugs. Her porcelain face was now deep red and contorted with pain, her fingernails were delving into her palms, and her body was heaving with deep, shaky breaths.

Claire had been alternating between trying to maintain a focus on Jack's face and scrunching her eyes shut with obvious pain, until eventually she turned her head to the side and saw Charlie standing there. Her usually startling blue eyes seemed glassy and clouded over with fear, just like Charlie's had been so many years ago when he had first tried heroin. Seeing that look of foggy pain in Claire's eyes made Charlie feel closer to her than he ever had before, even when the two of them were sharing imaginary peanut butter.

"Charlie," Claire gasped out, her voice as contorted with pain as the rest of her was. "Oh Charlie, it hurts, oh it hurts."

She made a small noise halfway between a gasp and a squeak as her body heaved with another contraction.

As Jack tried to calm her down and keep her focused, Claire extended a shaky arm in Charlie's direction, her fingers clasping and unclasping wildly.

"Charlie," she choked out once more.

In a flash, Charlie had left his position at the opening of the clearing and took a place at Claire's side. At first he just placed one hand gingerly on the small of her back and the other hand in her hair, unsure of exactly what she wanted him to do. But as soon as she felt Charlie's touch, Claire threw her arms around Charlie's waist and buried her face in his chest, crying softly. Charlie held her small frame gently; stroking her hair in a way that he hoped would be soothing.

"I'm so scared," she whimpered against his shirt.

"It's alright Claire," he whispered softly. "I'm here. Shhh… I'm here now. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise."

"Charlie," said Jack, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Charlie nodded in acknowledgement, but didn't take his eyes off of Claire.

"Charlie, look at me," Jack said firmly, the serious tone in his voice bringing Charlie to look at him. "It's time for Claire to start pushing. Try to keep her calm and relaxed. She's already panicking, and if she gets any more nervous…."

He trailed off, and Charlie nodded numbly. Jack gave him one last clasp on the shoulder before turning to Claire.

"Claire, it's time for you to push," said Jack. "Charlie's not going anywhere. He's going to be right here the whole time."

After two more contractions and a countless number of pained, attempted to be steadied gasps of breath, Claire was leaning back against Charlie with her head rested on his shoulder. Charlie had his arms around her and he was holding her very gently, but still protectively.

"Okay Claire," said Jack. "I need you to push. Now don't push too hard, and don't strain yourself. I'm going to need you to push as hard as you can later, so you need to save your energy. Okay?"

Claire nodded shakily.

"Okay, now push!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank s so much for all the fantastic reviews, guys! I'm so so so sorry about theshameful delay between the chapters of this story, and I certainly hope that you will all be happy with this one. After this, there will be ONE MORE CHAPTER, and let's all cross our fingers that there won't be as much of a time gap until it gets put up!**

Chapter Three

The baby was covered in blood. Its tiny face was scrunched up as it let out a high-pitched wail. It cried, and cried, and cried, and its little hands grasped at the air.

A boy. It was a boy. Jack announced this proudly as he cleaned off the baby's mouth and nose before handing him over to Claire, who hugged the baby, her baby, who she had put so much strain and desperation into bringing into this world. She had tears in her glassy blue eyes as she gazed down at her little boy in her arms, and she had never looked so beautiful before in Charlie's eyes.

Her cheeks were flushed, her face was slick with sweat, her lips were dry and chapped, and her hands had been clammy when Charlie had held him in his before she had let go to take her baby, her beautiful baby boy.

Soon Charlie felt his vision fogging with tears at the site of the woman he loved with her child. He couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at the sight. Claire had been so strong, and so brave, despite how painful the experience had been and how tiring it had been for her small body.

Jack gave the pair one last smile, and then stood up and quietly left them, gone unnoticed by Charlie or Claire. He joined Kate at the edge of the clearing, and the two of them gazed at the new family lovingly from a distance.

Charlie gazed down at the tiny baby that nestled its way into its mother's chest. His screams had stopped upon being placed in Claire's arms, and he now appeared to be sleeping soundly.

"Charlie?" whispered Claire, breaking the tranquil silence that had fallen over the clearing.

Charlie tore his eyes off of the baby and looked at Claire, finding that she was gazing back at him with glistening eyes that were now heavily lidded with fatigue. He could tell that she was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

"Yes, Claire?"

She struggled to keep her eyes open as she groped blindly for his hand, the hand she had squeezed to death and dug her fingernails brutally into during the intense moments of her childbirth. Charlie took her hand delicately in his, and she gave it a soft squeeze.

"Charlie," she whispered again, much softer this time. Her eyes fell shut, and she murmured out, "I love you."

She said it so softly that Charlie thought he might have imagined it, but his heart still skipped a beat.

Charlie leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, letting his lips linger on her warm, soft skin, still slightly moist with sweat.

"I love you too," he whispered.

He let his lips linger against her forehead for a moment, and didn't see the small smile playing on the lips of the presumably asleep Claire.

&&&

"Jack, can I talk to you about something?"

Jack looked up from the water bottle he was filling to find Charlie standing by the small waterfall, fidgeting with the hem of his hoodie and shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other.

"Sure, Charlie. I was just about to head down to the beach with some water. Do you want to give me a hand? We can talk on the way."

Charlie nodded swiftly and bit down on his lower lip.

Charlie and Jack finished filling the water bottles together in silence before loading them into their backpacks, hoisting them up onto their shoulders, and starting off on the familiar trail that led to the beach.

"Claire will be at the beach," Charlie thought, though he didn't know whether to be joyful or nervous about this. Either way, the thought made his heart lurch.

His mind was so preoccupied with this thought he didn't even realize that Jack was speaking to him.

"Wh-what?" stammered Charlie as he came back to his senses.

Jack gave him a little half smile/half smirk before repeating himself.

"I just asked you what it is you wanted to talk to me about."

"Oh yeah," Charlie mumbled, gazing down at his shoes.

He adjusted the pack of water on his shoulders, cleared his throat twice, and bit his lip until it turned pale before finally raising his head and meeting Jack's gaze.

"It's just," he began, then stopped again and looked back down at his shoes before continuing. "It's Claire.

"Claire?"

Charlie nodded.

"What about her?" Jack asked nonchalantly, though he had a knowing smile on his lips.

Charlie gave a half-hearted shrug without looking up from the ground.

"I really like her," he said quietly.

"I know," Jack replied as if Charlie had just stated that fish can swim.

Charlie nodded briefly, then froze in his tracks as the impact of Jack's words hit him.

"Wait a minute," he gushed, gaping at Jack disbelievingly. "You KNOW? You KNOW that I like her?"

"It wasn't exactly hard to figure it out Charlie. Come here, let's sit down," said Jack in a tone that was just a tad too therapeutic for Charlie's comfort.

He set down his heavy back and sat gingerly on the jungle floor with his back up against a large tree, and Jack sat on the ground across from him.

Charlie hugged his knees to his chest before he began.

"When I'm around her, I feel things that I've never felt for anybody before," Charlie said softly.

Jack nodded and gave him a small encouraging smile. That was all it took.

"I just look at her, and I know that I want to take care of her. She's just so beautiful, and so sweet, and so perfect, and I'm afraid that I'll never be good enough for her. But I really WANT to be good enough for her! I want to find a way to be good enough to take care of her and her baby. I love them. I love them both. But I just can't find a way to tell her that. And even if I did, that doesn't change the fact that I'll never be good enough to kiss the ground she walks on."

"You practically already do, Charlie," stated Jack levelly.

Charlie sighed heavily and sank back against the tree, exhausted from his outburst.

"I just don't know what to do."

"What do you mean you don't know what to do?"

"Well I can't exactly tell her how I feel, can I? Why on earth would she want a guy like me taking care of her and her baby? If I do tell her, she'll probably have Locke hunt me down and slaughter me like a boar for being a creepy obsessive stalker."

He moaned softly and rested his head in his hands. His heroine withdrawal hadn't been giving him much trouble lately, but when he felt overly stressed or upset, he would often get headaches or chills, and sometimes even found himself craving a fix.

"Charlie," said Jack, nudging some Tylenol into his hand, which Charlie gratefully accepted. "If Claire was going to send Locke after you, I'm sure she would have done it by now. You've been taking care of her so much lately, if she thought you were in any way creepy or obsessive, she definitely would have done something about it by now."

Determined to wipe the doubtful look off of Charlie's face, Jack leaned in and said, "Look, I know that Claire likes you too."

"How?"

"As she was going into labor, she kept asking for you. I kept telling her to lay back and start pushing, but she refused. She just kept begging for somebody to bring you to her. Finally I sent Kate off to get you. Claire wouldn't listen to a word I said until you showed up."

Charlie blinked in disbelief, his eyes no longer clouded with doubt, but now filled with hope.

"Really?"

Jack leaned back again, now fully satisfied.

"You bet."

Charlie beamed and clamored quickly to his feet.

"Brilliant! Thanks a bunch Jack. I'll send you a signed CD once we get back home, I promise."

And with that, Charlie took off into the trees in the direction of the beach, no doubt to find Claire.

Jack smiled into the trees that Charlie had disappeared into, and swung both his water-filled backpack and Charlie's onto his shoulders before trudging off into the trees in the same direction. He didn't at all mind the extra weight on his shoulders when it was in comparison to the elation he felt at the notion of finally succeeding in getting Charlie to admit his feelings to Claire.

He could only hope that by the time he got back to the beach, there would be a happy new couple waiting there.

**Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

Hello to my faithful readers! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews, and I am SO sorry that it took me so long to finish it. I was in a major case of writer's block, but I eventually just gritted my teeth and got through it! Thanks for sticking with me this whole time and being so patient, and I hope you enjoy the LAST CHAPTER of Heartbeat! Please review after you've read it; it means a lot to me!

Chapter Four

Does she like blue or pink?

Charlie was surprised when he realized that he didn't know if Claire liked blue or pink, or what her favorite color was, or anything about her color preference, and was even more surprised when he realized that he really didn't know much of anything about Claire at all. This could have been partially do to the fact that many of his conversations with Claire consisted mainly of Claire talking while he stared at her, too mesmerized by her beauty and charm to retain anything she was saying, but filling the lulls in her chatter with an offhanded 'uh-huh' to divert suspicion.

But there really wasn't any hurry, Charlie told himself as he gathered handfuls of both blue and pink flowers. After all, Lord only knew when they would be rescued, if they ever would, and if everything went well when he got to the beach, he and Claire would soon be getting to know each other a lot better.

The very thought of it made his heart skip a beat. He was finally going to do it. He was finally going to tell Claire how he felt about her. He could only hope that Jack was right about the way she felt about him.

&&&

"Good afternoon, Claire."

She turned her gaze away from the baby nestled in her arms to beam up at a bashfully grinning Charlie.

"Hello, Charlie. Are those for me?"

Charlie looked confused for a moment before Claire indicated the bouquet of flowers clutched tightly in Charlie's hand, causing him to blush and stutter slightly.

"Oh, yeah. That's-that's right. I, um, I picked these for you."

"Thank you, Charlie. They're beautiful!" said Claire, shifting her baby to one arm, so that she could take the flowers from Charlie. Claire smelled them briefly before standing up with Charlie's help and carrying the flowers into her small shelter to set them down on a small wooden table that Locke had made for her.

Claire plopped back down on the sand outside her shelter and rocked her little baby in her arms, humming softly a tune that Charlie failed to recognize. He shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other before taking a seat next to her in the sand.

"How are you feeling?" he asked softly, resting his arms on his knees.

Claire stopped humming and for a moment the only sound was the roar of the ocean.

"Exhausted," she admitted with a sigh.

"I could watch after the baby for a while if you want to rest," Charlie offered, knowing perfectly well that he was stalling to get to the inevitable.

Claire considered for a moment, gazing down at her beautiful baby boy before her face broke into a smile and she replied, "That would be wonderful, Charlie."

She gently handed the baby over to Charlie, kissed him briefly on the cheek, gently brushed her fingers across her baby's face one more time, and went back into her shelter to rest on her makeshift bed.

Charlie looked down at the small bundle that had been placed in his arms. It's skin was soft and smooth, white as cotton, and two of its chubby fingers were in its little pink mouth.

Charlie slowly moved one of his shaking hands up the baby's body so that it rested directly on top of the left side of the baby's chest. The tiny heartbeat drummed against his fingers, so soft, yet so strong. So full of love and trust. The baby didn't know anything yet. It didn't know about Charlie's past. It didn't know about all the bad things that Charlie had done, or even the bad things that Claire had done. All it knew was trust. Nothing but trust for everything and everybody around it.

A tear fell on the baby's cheek. Through watery eyes Charlie could see the baby open up its beautiful blue eyes, take its fingers out of its mouth, and smile at him.

&&&

"How was your nap?"

"It was great. Thank you so much Charlie. I really needed that," replied Claire, taking her baby back from Charlie's arms.

"It was my pleasure. Hey, do you want to take a walk? We can take Turniphead with us."

Claire looked bewildered.

"Turniphead?"

"I just thought maybe we could call him that until you decide on a name, because his head sort of looks like a turnip."

Claire laughed.

"Sure. Let's take a walk along the shore here."

&&&

"Claire?"

"Yes, Charlie?"

They had stopped at the end of the beach and were standing just far enough towards the ocean that the waves occasionally lapped at their ankles.

The cool ocean breeze was rippling through Claire's wavy blonde hair and blowing it into her face. Charlie reached over and tucked a piece of it behind her ears, letting the palm of his hand linger on the side of her face.

"Claire, there's something I've been meaning to tell you for a while now. As a matter of fact, I probably should have told you already. I've been putting it off for far too long."

He took her hand gently in his before continuing.

"I want to take care of you, Claire. I want to protect you. And I don't just mean from all the crazy things on this island. I want to help you whenever you need me. I know I've done some bad things in my life, but I want to move past that. Right now, all I want is to be there for you and the baby every single day. And not just while we're on the island either. If we ever get rescued, I still want to take care of you both. I love you Claire, and I always will."

"Oh Charlie," Claire whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. "There's no one else in the world I would want to take care of me more."

Charlie wasn't sure what he thought kissing Claire would be like, but he was sure that he never could have possibly imagined that it would be like this.

Claire's lips were warm, dry, and slightly chapped. They felt soft and delicate against Charlie's own lips.

The kiss was short, and quite chaste, but it made Charlie's heart pound against his chest, the sound of it so loud and so deafening that Charlie thought there was no way Claire couldn't hear it too.

But, then again, Charlie thought as he gazed into Claire's beautiful blue eyes, maybe it was Claire's heartbeat he was hearing. Or perhaps it was the baby's heart pounding. Perhaps, just maybe, the tiny baby could feel the passion that was rushing through the air between Charlie and Claire.

Or maybe it was all of their hearts; all three of them pounding together in perfect, steady rhythm, all full of love, longing, and hope for the future.

And somehow their heartbeats were telling them that from this point on, everything would be the way it was supposed to be.

* * *

The End! Thank you so much for reading, and please review!

Love, 3

Lindsay


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